This was a SUPER busy weekend ... and those are turning out to be my FAVORITE kind :)

Saturday was my friend Rachelle's daughter Amelia's birthday party. DH & The Boy went fishing so it was just us girlies :)

The party was in a town about 2 hours away so I decided to hit the mall on my way out there since malls can be hard to come by in my {red}neck of the woods ;-). I was unaware that there was a carousel ... LOL ... But Lil Miss did so well in the stores that I rewarded her with a ride :) She chose "the Tiger cause it's saying ROAAAAAR!" lol

After we finished up there it was on to the party! It was a Dora party and Lil Miss was so excited!

Rachelle MADE the cake! Didn't it come out cute?! Amelia kept greeting her guests at the door and RUNNING to the table saying "DORA CAKE! DORA CAKE!" it was the CUTEST thing :)

We were having a great time :) I tried {a few} times to get a cute picture of us and I think I now now Lil Miss's diversionary tactic ... whenever I get a few pictures in she says "OK! MY TURN! I wanna take a picture of YOU, Mommy ... you're so preeeeetty :D"

And I fall for it ... everytime ;-)

In between bouts of HAIL and RAIN {it is MAY, mind you, IN CALIFORNIA) the kids played in the back yard.

Lil Miss & the birthday girly :)

Lil Miss and her friend at the party, the birthday girls cousin.

And here we have the rule of 3's rearing it head ... whenever you have 3 subjects in a photo ...

It will take you INFINITE amount of photos to get one with all 3 of them looking at the camera ;-) And usually you will either run out of patience, or your subjects will flee the scene before you get that shot ;-)

Me and the birthday girlys Mama, Rachelle :)

Rachelle & Baby Della (10ish weeks to go!)

And Lil Miss informed me that the Dora cake was "VERY good"

And that I could stop taking pictures NOW ... LOL

After Amelia opened her presents she wanted to play with the baby at the party :) She brought the baby food lol ... and what you don't see pictured here (because she is faster than my crappy Nikon) is her pretending to "water" the baby with her new watering can LOL it was so funny!

Then the grown ups played with THEIR toys LOL Don't you DARE take that last piece of cake from a preggy ... see that look in her eye?! LOL

Even with her Father-in-law ;-) You can just see the "Don't MAKE me" look on her face LOL

Once the dolly house was assembled ... nice construction job Shell ;-) ... the girls really got "into" it LOL ... get it? Cause she's ... IN ... the house ... hahaha ... *crickets*

The little girls really had a good time playing while us Mama's chatted for awhile :)

Awwwww, such a sweet birthday girl :)

Mama & Amelia

Me and Lil Miss ... I think this is my favorite picture of the two of us ... ever :) Thanks Shell!

Well the good times had to end sooner or later, so I got my drive home supplies ready and hit the road :)

Aaaaand then while I was stuck in traffic I got bored ... and what else was I to do? ... LOL

Yes I COULD have just focused on driving but then I wouldn't have gotten this super cute picture of me! :D See my dilema?! ;-)

I made it home JUST before this HUGE scary cloud. I had to deal with the hail and rain when I first left but I raced ahead and made it home just ahead of it :)

And dinner and THIS was waiting for me ...Ahhhh ... I LOVE my man :)